Voetball...Bolspiel...Futebol...Football is music, is life.

Michael Owen, here, is visibly humbled by the 25,000 Newcastle fans who showed up to greet himwarmly at St. James Park. The reception must feel to him he's made a good decision and will help the soreness of not returning to don a red shirt.

In the signing photos, you can see the satisfaction on the faces of Freddy Shepherd and Graeme Souness -- both are unemotive types -- who rightly feel their work rewarded. They have reeled in a big one.

Anybody who cares about quality football will relish the chemistry possible at Newcastle who have Carr, Parker, and now Owen (but lose Jermaine Jenas) alongside Alan Shearer as a possible long-term mentor. It will be interesting how Owen and Shearer play together, if ever they do; and how Souness adapts the team's style to factor Owen's abilities in.

Despite that Newcastle United are the only ones to meet Real Madrid's transfer terms, one does not see Michael Owen in vertical black & white stripes.

And it is hard to imagine Alan Shearer's, Greame Souness's and Freddy Shepherd's full-court press having any effect on Owen, whose primary wish is to return to Liverpool. Owen would consider loan terms for a year Tyneside, but Newcastle shun the notion.

Donald McRea's lovely piece on Sir Bobby in The Guardian reveals much about the widely loved ex-England and Newcastle manager. Of particular note, Sir Bobby has a special place for Chelsea Manager, Jose Mourinho:

Even in the unlikely event of Arsenal signing Jenas, Wenger will struggle to keep up with
Mourinho. If Robson follows that managerial battle with a mixture of
pride and envy, his warm memories of Mourinho carry no such
ambivalence. They first met when Robson took over as manager of
Sporting Lisbon in the early 90s.

He introduced himself at the airport. 'Hello Mister. My name is Jose
Mourinho and the president has hired me as your interpreter. I hope I
can do a good job for you, Mister.' He always called me Mister. That
was Jose. Very nice, very respectful, very handsome. But, if I said
something hard and direct, he never tried to soften it in translation.
Jose was strong but he developed a nice, positive rapport with
everyone. The players loved him.

One of my stipulations in moving to Barcelona was that Jose should
accompany me [as he had to Porto]. You should have seen him with
Ronaldo, whom I'd just signed for £20m. Ronaldo, for the short time we
had him at Barcelona, was phenomenal. There were no girls for Ronaldo
then. No disco, no fashion, no earrings, no flash cars. He had the need
to be a great player - and so he listened to Jose. It didn't matter
that Jose had done nothing as a player. With a young genius like
Ronaldo, he was perfect. Jose knew how to speak to him.

Robson vows he'll be back in the game; he even expresses regret about having turned down Wolves, Hearts and Derby just after his ignominious exit from Newcastle. I've no doubt Sir Bobby will return.